Inland claimants on the rise

According to the Canadian Council for Refugees, the percentage of Canadian refugee claimants who make their claims once already in the country is on the rise.

"What we've seen over the last 20 years, there's a huge shift increasingly towards a higher and higher percentage of the claims being made inland," said Janet Dench, executive director of the national non-profit.

Janet Dench is the executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. She says Canada may need to reconsider its Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. (CBC)

"People find some way to get in, either they come in as a visitor or they cross the border regularly or they overstay a visa, et cetera. Those people then make a claim inland."

Dench says refugee claimants are increasingly choosing inland claims because of the difficulties making a claim at the border.

She argued Canadian refugee claims are processed in a way that provides disincentives for people making claims at borders or airports and said the Safe Third Country Agreement, which Canada and the U.S. signed in 2002, forces refugees to attempt illegal border crossings.

Manitoba RCMP are tasked with securing about 520 kilometres of the Canada-U.S. border, the world's longest that's undefended.

"We have people and technology to protect that border, but people do enter illegally," RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel said in an email.

Dench said some people fleeing their home countries with the intention of coming to Canada go the U.S. first, because it's easier to fly into.

But others who are crossing the border illegally may have intended to make the U.S. their home and been put off by the recent American election, she said.

"Maybe they've been there for some time but they're worried about the implications of the change in administration in the U.S., with the various promises that incoming president [Donald] Trump has made," she said.

"Obviously people [who] are Muslim, people who are generally without status in the U.S., may feel like they're not going to be able to get protection if they are refugees."